Badge in Azure

Saleen felt that it was a little weird not having Lex around. Even though the barracks set up by the merchant convoy were pretty good it was still poles apart with the ones brought along by Lex.

Sixty large chariots were positioned in the middle of the camp compound forming a circle. Tents were placed outside the large chariots and beyond the tents were the sturdy temporary barracks. Since the merchant convoy did not possess Lex’s God’s Ring all their barracks were made of wood and they were transported by the large chariots. Traps and wooden perimeter walls were built outside the barracks.

Each of the eight sentry posts were enveloped by a one-yard tall large shield. Aini had also deployed skeletal soldiers to guard the sentry posts. A skeletal soldier might not possess adequate offensive power, but it would not get exhausted. They also had a high level of alertness, the moment someone got close the skeletal soldiers could quickly warn Aini.

Cuisi noticed the dissatisfaction Saleen had towards the camp grounds, then he whispered into Saleen’s ear, “I will keep watch tonight, I won’t be sleeping.”

Saleen then felt more assured. Usually, a demon would remain alert even if they did not sleep for a few days unlike humans who would be so lethargic if they did not sleep for just one night.

“Okay, if any bandits appear, kill them carefully. Allow Aini to collect some usable materials,” Saleen reminded Cuisi. Cuisi’s whip could disintegrate a person the moment it entrapped them and they could not even be made into a Berserk Undead Soldier if that happened.

Since some of the enemies were at the standard of a grand swordmaster, Saleen did not dare be complacent. In areas Aini could deal with Saleen would not let Su fight. An undead soldier was the best thing for helping a mage conserve strength. Aini himself could control several of them effortlessly. If they were intelligent zombies it would already be good if Aini could even control a dozen of them.

Whether it was a regular army or bandit gang, one would conduct a night assault when it was around dawn. At this timing, one’s vigilance was the lowest and they would be in deep sleep. Even if they woke up, their offensive power would be at the lowest point too.

Saleen had brought along his own barrack, so he separated from the merchant convoy and Narnia stayed with him. Since they were mages they had to meditate and practice in the evenings, there was not any inconvenience at all.

Since a mage had high mental strength, they needed less sleep. During special periods where they had little sleep they could still be as energetic as a demon who had not slept for a few days. A mage had to have time for meditation still however.

After Narnia meditated she did not fall asleep immediately. Instead, she discussed magic with Saleen.

Since Narnia possessed profound knowledge, Saleen could not offer her much. He decided to talk about combat techniques. Even though Narnia was a lifestyle mage, her mental strength and magic chords were both higher than that of a combat mage.

“Saleen, I want to learn your Water Shield, is that okay?” Narnia was actually fond of Saleen, but she had dismissed this notion after feeling that she could never be superior to Lex. She was jubilant that she got to travel with Saleen this time around. It had been a long time since Narnia learnt new techniques, so she decided to seek help from Saleen.

“This is…”

“Is it inconvenient?” Narnia was a little disappointed as Saleen’s Water Shield was very powerful, it was even mightier than the Ice Plate Armor. A grand mage was most in need of such a defensive spell.

“It’s not that it’s not convenient, but you have to advance to a grade-7 sorcerer before you can achieve the same effect as my Water Shield. Even a grade-7 mage may not be able to cast this spell instantaneously like me. If a defensive spell cannot be cast immediately during battle a mage will be greatly disadvantaged.”

“Oh, that’s no big deal. I am not a combat mage, I can release the Ice Plate Armor before releasing the Water Shield.”

Saleen was thinking in the right direction. Even though the Ice Plate Armor could not resist a skill like the poison fog one could breathe while within the Water Shield. All the toxins in the air would have been filtered by the water element. A lifestyle mage would not fight at the frontline. The function of this skill was more pronounced than an instantaneous spell.

“Okay, now release a Water Shield for me.”

Narnia’s face was a little red. Displaying Saleen’s forte in front of Saleen himself made her slightly embarrassed. She still chanted the mantra and prepared to cast the spell.

Thirty seconds later, Narnia’s spell was considered completed as a translucent shield appeared before her. This shield was condensed from the water element and it was pretty tiring to maintain the shape of the shield. As ripples of water emerged, the shield seemed like it would break anytime.

This was just a façade. The Water Shield was in fact a low level spell with tremendous defensive power. The biggest flaw, other than it being made from water, was that it could not be cast instantaneously. This seemingly frail spell could actually resist a level-4 magic attack. In thirty seconds, the enemy would have already cast a high level spell. Indeed, such a defensive spell with slow movements had almost zero significance in battle.

Saleen laughed, then said, “Do it again.”

Speaking, Saleen released the Quickcloud Spell, causing thick clouds to fill the barracks. Placed in between Saleen and Narnia was water vapor which was fully transparent and not in a cloud-like appearance. The water element was abnormally thick at this point in time.

Narnia slowly dispersed the Water Shield from her hand, then begin chanting the mantra again. After about fifteen seconds, a second Water Shield had appeared. This Water Shield had developed twice as quickly, its area was also two-thirds bigger than before.

Just as Narnia was about to answer, the blaring of a magic alarm filled the air. Saleen said, “Ignore that, lets continue.”

Narnia nodded. Maintaining the Water Shield, she said, “If I cast the Cleaning spell to make the water element thicker, the casting speed of the Water Shield will be increased, right?”

“There is another alternative. Cast the lowest level water spell to make the water element more intense than usual. That way you can cast a high level water spell faster. The starting verse of many mantras for high level spells are similar to that of low level spells. Now, you shall follow me and chant the mantra first, try to alter a spell that has already been completed.”

After finishing his sentence, Saleen began chanting a mantra slowly. This was actually pretty unfamiliar to him. To Saleen, casting water spells rarely required him to chant extended mantras.

The sound of massacre could be heard coming from outside the barrack. Saleen appeared not to notice anything, he continued explaining the technique of the Water Shield to Narnia.

Outside the barrack, Cuisi stood in the shadows, he had already drawn his weapon. After signing a soul contract with Nailisi, he had given up trying to make Nailisi help him revert to his original gender. It was pretty good using the body of a human female, Nailisi had allowed them to regain their demonic forms during battle at least.

The Ultimate Shapeshifting Skill was great. Cuisi had met several people, including Bain, but all of them only knew that Cuisi was a demon by guessing. If only vision or perception was employed, even a grade-9 sorcerer would not be able to determine his identity.

The sounds of arrows whooshing exploded in the surroundings of the camp compound. Hundreds of bows were firing, causing the people in the camp to be startled. The soldiers guarding the merchant convoy had donned their armor while the servants grabbed large shields. All of them stood guard at the camp’s periphery.

This large shield contained three layers. A layer of skin, a layer of wood, and a layer of metal. A miniature alchemical crossbow could only penetrate it if shot at close range.

By shooting the arrows perpendicular to the ground the bandits could not even hurt anyone in the camp. After a few rounds of barrage the bandits began tilting their bows downwards. Both Sharman’s and Aini’s trusted soldiers possessed bedazzling martial arts. They used their longswords to deflect the arrows descending from above and still had some strength to protect those servants holding large shields.

The servants from both merchant convoys remained composed. Wielding magazine crossbows, they waited silently for the enemy to rush into the camp complex. The range of a magazine crossbow was almost the same as a hunting bow, but within ten yards its lethality was pretty high. Its firing speed was also high, they would be more effective against the bandits who were not wearing metal armor.

Aini had already woken up calmly. He was commanding the skeletal soldiers, making them advance out of the camp in pure darkness. After the skeletal soldiers were transformed by Aini they were now black in color. Aini had only used magic to dye their bones. Unfortunately, a spirit’s eyes were filled with the Soul Flame, so a spirit could not be totally invisible.

Of course, Aini would not attack in such a straightforward manner. Dozens of spiders the size of a wheel crept out stealthily. These spiders had been newly summoned by Aini.

A death spider traveled much faster than a skeletal soldier. Their eight legs flitted about and they dashed towards the bandits quickly. The offensive power of a death spider was not high. These spiders spat out cobwebs swiftly entrapping over thirty bandits. As the webs contained toxins, those trapped bandits only managed to struggle for a while, then they ceased all movements permanently.

A few bandits at the grade of a swordmaster immediately rushed forward, slashing accurately at the death spiders. They had no magic weapons and a spirit could well tolerate physical attacks though. The death spiders soldiered on as they continued spitting out spiderwebs.

Once the death spiders were killed, the team of bandits who were preparing to charge forward had already lost more than three-hundred men. The skeletal soldiers at the rear charged forward, dragging the bandits’ bodies back to the camp.

The swordmasters tried to give chase, but were pushed back by the arrows fired from within the camp.

The skeletons had seized over one-hundred corpses and Aini began creating new undead soldiers joyously while being protected by the shields. If these skeletons were to fight with the bandits, it would already be impressive if they could even kill a dozen bandits. They decided to snatch the bodies causing the other bandits to be hopping mad.

One by one, new undead soldiers were created. The skeletons rushed out again, capturing another over eighty bodies. Aini produced another two-hundred undead soldiers. The bandits outside could no longer take it. They wanted to harass the merchant convoy first, firing arrows at it till daybreak before launching a direct offensive. This time around the bandits had gathered more than two-thousand men coupled with some mercenaries from the Laiyin Duchy. Their offensive power was greatly boosted.

From the bandits’ perspective, the bows and heavy crossbows were ready, they could totally damage the merchant convoy. Who would have expected the enemy to use skeletal soldiers disrupting all their plans. The enemy’s death mage had lost almost one-hundred skeletal soldiers and a dozen grade-3 death spiders. More than three-hundred bandits were slaughtered still. If this went on, the enemy’s death mage would be able to summon another batch of skeletons.

Skeletons were the most worthless spirits, the bandits could not afford to waste resources on them.

After a period of turmoil, the bandits reassembled and attacked. One-hundred bandits clad in heavy armor formed up neatly. Raising shields in front of them, they began charging forward. Since the camp compound was only surrounded with wooden walls the bandits could use their handy short axes to hack them down.

In the camp complex, elemental vibrations became increasingly vigorous. Aini laughed secretly. The grand mage beside Sharman could not hold back any longer. One-hundred heavy infantrymen dashing forward was a pretty astounding event. If they managed to breach the camp compound there would be massive casualties even with assistance from the undead soldiers.

These bandits were really dumb as well, they knew that there was a grand mage there, but did not organize heavy cavalrymen to charge ahead. Even though a heavy infantryman had better defensive power, their speed was slower. From a distance of one-hundred yards, a grand mage would have adequate time to prepare a group attack spell already.

“Violent Stone Shards!” Sharman’s mage bellowed, causing Aini to be dumbfounded. “You are still in the mood to shout a spell’s name during battle? This is surely a narcissistic mage. I will let him show off then, anyway there aren’t many opposing heavy infantrymen. After these heavy infantrymen are removed, it will just be the bandits and you shall watch my Berserk Undead Soldiers!”